In Between

If you ever get me going in a conversation about infographics, I'll most likely refer to the work of Stefanie Posavec. Her "On the Map" project disintegrates and re-maps Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" into finite details of literary space: subject matter, sentence structures and length. And if you've ever read Kerouac, you'll know that to re-interpret his prose is quite the ambitious feat. On NOTCOT you can and must view the images in full to even remotely appreciate the depth and precision of Posavec's work.

That said, I aspire to have that much dedication to the world surrounding me.







And a couple more randoms:

I am having trouble pin-pointing my focus for what I want to blog about. I've been dwelling on the idea of starting a useful blog for quite some time now, and I keep finding myself stuck on this part -- What topic do I want to discuss with my readers? I have many interests that I feel merit being written about, but what are the chances that a reader will feel equally passionate about all those things, over one?

Relationships?
I really find the topic of relationships fascinating. I could write for days and days about symbiotic relationships of tangible and intangible things. I think about it all the time; making connections between people, evaluating and balancing events, occassionally from an observational P.O.V. mostly from experience. But who would want to subscribe to that? Not sure. I'm not about to tailor to teeny bopper romantics who tell stories that start with "Dear Abby --". Although that is also an interesting approach.

Design?
I am a designer, so of course I'll also want to share my insight on what is design and how it works. But I'm a young designer with relatively little experience, I don't always feel confident enough to dole out my so-called expert opinions. I could always collect cool designs that I find on the internets and upcycle them to my audience, but pleh, everything is that. I only want it to be a very small part - if anything.

Photography?
I like photography and can incorporate my own photography into the blog. I think that is a requisite for good original content and value.

Style
I also love to write. Easy nuff. I particularly like to freewrite, so it would make sense that the format of my writing would be a slightly edited and pared down version of my daily musings. So that leans more towards a personal blog rather than a professional blog. Dilemma; I want a professional blog. P.S. I'm currently writing this in Khoi Vinh's preview version of Writer's Block, a writing application that dims everything but the TextEdit-like text box, muffles all background sound/music, and prevents you from deleting ANYTHING or going back to add text anywhere. At first it's pretty frustrating to see so many striketrhu marks on the page, but then slowly you just kind of go with it and learn to appreciate that what comes out comes out and you can't do anything about it but keep moving forward. Thus, eliminating the writer's block. I digress.

I suppose the issue isn't that I need to focus my ideas to just one thing or style -- pigeonholing myself to one thing or style may not necessarily draw the strongest audience -- the issue is that I feel pressured that no one will want to read what I write, and I don't know how to manipulate my writing so that people will want to read it. I see my pageviews and unique visitors go up but I see no discussion forming in the comments, no feedback to give me direction.

Just Do It
It's my own mental block that's keeping me from starting, isn't it. I know I just need to do a bit more DOING and a bit less PLANNING, especially this early in stage, but I can't help but feel like I'm treading in really shallow water alongside a huge mass of other bloggers that are just trying to get known in this world wide net. For now, I'm going to keep writing whatever it is that comes to me through my day and hopefully my subject matter will develop naturally. Until then, any and all feedback is appreciated greatly.

An idea came to me today. Sparked from several points (stumbling upon Daytum, spending a day Debbie having awesomely fragmented and non-linear conversations, and from another conversation about how up and down and relationships over lunch with my friend Krystle today) my new idea is: What if rated every day of my life on a scale of 1-10 and visually mapped the progression and the factors that affect the rating? There could be multiple variables that affect what makes my day good or bad like whether or not I socialized that day, or had a good meal or went to work. Ultimately, I would have the facts to make general conclusions about what makes me happy. Of course, I should know that by now through existing but I like to think that this evidence will come in handy when I have one of those conversations that go like "Milan, are you happy? [me: Yes.] Really though, are you? [me: Um, duuuh! See the chart!?]" What now!

I originally wanted to map the waves that my relationship with J tend to follow and study the types of issues, or 'wavelengths' and "amplitudes', and the high points (peaks) and the low points (troughs), but then I realized he miiiiight not appreciate me analyzing the intimacies of our life to that extent, esp if I have the intention of making it public.

Right now, I know I am at a high point in my life, but last month I was at an all time low. I know the peak of this ride will only last so long, but I'm curious, for how long and how high? How long and how low will my lows be? Will they lessen in frequency or will they lengthen in time? What is the meaning of life and why isn't it in the dictionary?

I've always been interested in information, growth and relationships between them. In elementary school I like to create my own roster of my classmates that rated who I thought was funny or cute or smart or all of the above. I used to draw a diagrams after diagrams of the interior of my room to see what worked best. For godssakes, I was an information freak. Reminder to myself to share some of the cool infographics I've found on the internets. Stay tuned..

I'm feeling pretty fantastic today. It's been a while since I've been happy with all aspects of my life: Friends, Family, Work, Love, Creativity. Physical Health is not on that list because it's on timeout - always too disappointing.

I slept in this Saturday morning. I awoke to find amazing sunlight bursting through my blinds, so I let it in and my room has been glowing since. I've lit candles, eaten boiled eggs and wheat English muffins, played with the camera, organized the piles in my room into new piles, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, done sufficient web browsing and even wrote an entry for the collaborative journal. More on that when time comes.

Creativity is flowing through me and it feels so gooood. I am enjoying it thoroughly while it lasts. You know that feeling, when you have something you know is good but only temporarily? The ONLY thing you can do is appreciate it and take advantage of all that it offers, while it's being offered. Don't think about anything but the present, and don't be sad when when the moment is gone.

I'm going to go eat some ice cream now.